February 26, 2005

Chronicles of Narnia Alert

Terry Mattingly at GetReligion is reporting on the upcoming Chronicles of Narnia movie series:

Actually, the headline that The New York Times copy desk wrote for reporter David Kehr's recent story on the forthcoming Narnia movie franchise wasn't all that bad, either: "Disney's Next Hero: A Lion King of Kings." The article makes it clear that the artists charged with bringing the beloved classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
to the screen face a major challenge, one that is sure to create news
for years to come as the seven-book series unfolds. Here are the money
quotes:

Company representatives . . . have little to
say publicly about the "Narnia" cycle, which is being produced in
partnership with the financier Philip Anschutz's Walden Media. They
cite a natural reticence about promoting work that is still in
progress: the director Andrew Adamson, an animation specialist whose
only previous films are the computer-generated comic fairy tales
"Shrek" and "Shrek 2," is still behind his digital console.

But this time, the pros at Disney are wrestling with a special
challenge: how to sell a screen hero who was conceived as a forthright
symbol of Jesus Christ, a redeemer who is tortured and killed in place
of a young human sinner and who returns in a glorious resurrection that
transforms the snowy landscape of Narnia into a verdant paradise.

That spirituality sets Aslan apart from most of the Disney pantheon
and presents the company with a significant dilemma: whether to
acknowledge the Christian symbolism and risk alienating a large part of
the potential audience, or to play it down and possibly offend the many
Christians who count among the books' fan base.

There are some very real fears that Disney will dilute the Christian content of the books in the movie version:

But there will be voices to weaken the doctrinal content of the
product -- will Queen Susan end up, in book seven, as an apostate?
Comments by Disney veteran Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear
Center of the University of Southern California, cut to the heart of
the matter.

Of Lewis's work, Mr. Kaplan said: "There's enough story and
traditional emotion in the 'Narnia' books that they can let the
Christian mysticism in it either be a subtext or not a part of it at
all. I suspect you can portray resurrection in the same way that E.T.
comes back to life, and that practically every fairy tale has a hero or
heroine who seems to be gone forever but nevertheless manages to come
back."

That sound you hear is C.S. Lewis devotees (and scholars) screaming.

If this dilution takes place it will be a travesty. The so-called "Christian Mysticism" is at the heart of the books, and it goes beyond mere mysticism - the work of Christ and the plan of redemption are at the heart of the books.

However, I do have some bad news for Mr. Kaplan. Though he may hope to portray the resurrection of Aslan as just another fairy tale where "a hero or heroine who seems to be gone forever but nevertheless manages to come back," he ought to ask why "practically every fairy tale" has this element in it. We Christians think that this is because of the inescapability of redemption. The longing of every human heart is a longing for redemption, and this longing for redemption is inherent in the Christian story. While he may hope to dilute the Christian story of Narnia to look just like another fairy tale, the truth is that the fairy tales themseles are telling the Christian message.

11 Comments

What a contrast: Narnia meets Disney, the pinnacle of follow-your-heart-despite-what-your-elders-tell-you ethics. I hope and pray they don't have Aslan telling the Pevensies to "follow your heart, be true to yourself" and all the usual Disney hooey.

Many-many years ago, Children's Television Workshop (i.e. the crew behind Sesame Street did an animated version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

The production was obviously low-budget, the animation was the style of Sesame Street shorts (sort of a poor man's Yellow Submarine), but they played Narnia completely straight. As written. Didn't leave anything out, even included a lot of Lewis's original dialogue.

To this day, CTW's version of LW&W is my example of how a powerful story and respect for the original can overcome poor production values.

I don't feel that the Christian elements of the story need to be over-emphasized. They are very much in the subtext in the books (they really only come to a head in The Last Battle), and it seems clear that Lewis's christianity is not necessarily as clear-cut as the majority of contributors here make out, as evidenced by the logical, anti-religious conclusion of The Cosmic Trilogy.

Hey, people, don't be surprised if Disney screws up a tremendous story like The Chronicles of Narnia. Don't get me wrong, I want the movie to be like the book as much as any hard-core fan does. But we all know that Disney has proven over and over again to us their ability to distort the truth. So far, though, it looks like it's going to pan out pretty well. Just leave it to God and we'll see what happens.